Jack Nicholson (born John Joseph Nicholson; April 22, 1937) is an American actor and film-maker who has performed for over sixty years. He is known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance, and dark portrayals of anti-heroes and villainous characters. In many of his films, he has played the "eternal outsider, the sardonic drifter", someone who rebels against the social structure.[1]

Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937, in Neptune City, New Jersey,[2][3][4] the son of a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson).[5][6] Nicholson's mother was of Irish, English, and German descent. She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) in 1936, before realizing that he was already married.[7]:8[8] Biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jack's Life that Latvian-born Eddie King (originally Edgar A. Kirschfeld),[9] June's manager, may have been Nicholson's biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was.[5] As June was only seventeen years old and unmarried, her parents[note 1] agreed to raise Nicholson as their own child without revealing his true parentage, and June would act as his sister.[10]

In 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his "sister", June, was actually his mother, and his other "sister", Lorraine, was really his aunt.[11] By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). On finding out, Nicholson said it was "a pretty dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd call traumatizing ... I was pretty well psychologically formed".[10]

Nicholson grew up in Neptune City, New Jersey.[7]:7 He was raised in his mother's Roman Catholic religion.[12][13] Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, New Jersey.[7]:16 "When Jack was ready for high school, the family moved once more—this time two miles (three kilometres) farther south to old-money Spring Lake, New Jersey's so-called Irish Riviera, where Ethel May set up her beauty parlor in a rambling duplex at 505 Mercer Avenue."[14] "Nick", as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted "Class Clown" by the Class of 1954. He was in detention every day for a whole school year.[4] A theatre and a drama award at the school are named in his honor. In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50-year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine.[7]

Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was seventeen, to visit his sister. He took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio. They offered him a starting-level job as an animator, but he declined, citing his desire to become an actor.[16]

He trained to be an actor with a group called the Players Ring Theater, after which time he found small parts performing on the stage and in TV soap operas.[1] He made his film debut in a low-budget teen drama The Cry Baby Killer (1958), playing the title role. For the following decade, Nicholson was a frequent collaborator with the film's producer, Roger Corman. Corman directed Nicholson on several occasions, most notably in The Little Shop of Horrors, as masochistic dental patient and undertaker Wilbur Force, and also in The Raven, The Terror where he plays a French officer seduced by an evil ghost, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Nicholson also frequently worked with director Monte Hellman on low-budget westerns, though two in particular, Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting, initially failed to find interest from any US film distributors but gained cult success on the art-house circuit in France and were later sold to television. Nicholson also appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.

With his acting career heading nowhere, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the screenplay for the 1967 counterculture film The Trip (directed by Corman), which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. After first reading the script, Fonda told Nicholson he was totally impressed by the writing and felt it could become a great film. However, he was disappointed with how the film turned out, and blamed the editing which turned it into a "predictable" film, and said so publicly. "I was livid", he recalls.[18] Nicholson also co-wrote, with Bob Rafelson, the movie Head, which starred The Monkees. He also arranged the movie's soundtrack.

After a spot opened up in Fonda and Hopper's Easy Rider (1969), it led to his first big acting break. Nicholson played hard-drinking lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. The film cost only $400,000 to make, and became a blockbuster, grossing $40 million.[19] Biographer John Parker states that Nicholson's interpretation of his role placed him in the company of earlier "anti-hero" actors, such as James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, while promoting him into an "overnight number-one hero of the counter-culture movement".[attribution needed][19]

The part was a lucky break for Nicholson—the role had been written for actor Rip Torn, who withdrew from the project after an argument with Hopper.[20] In interviews, Nicholson later acknowledged the importance of being cast in Easy Rider: "All I could see in the early films, before Easy Rider, was this desperate young actor trying to vault out of the screen and create a movie career."[21]

Nicholson was cast by Stanley Kubrick, who was impressed with his role in Easy Rider, in the part of Napoleon in a film about his life, and although production on the film commenced, the project fizzled out, partly due to a change in ownership at MGM, and other issues.[22]

Nicholson starred in Five Easy Pieces alongside Karen Black in 1970 in what became his persona-defining role. Nicholson and Black were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Nicholson played Bobby Dupea, an oil rig worker, and Black was his waitress girlfriend. During an interview about the film, Black noted that Nicholson's character in the film was very subdued, and was very different than Nicholson's real-life personality. She says that the now-famous restaurant scene was partly improvised by Nicholson, and was out of character for Bobby, who wouldn't have cared enough to argue with a waitress.[23] "I think that Jack really has very little in common with Bobby. I think Bobby has given up looking for love. But Jack hasn't, he's very interested in love, in finding out things. Jack is a very curious, alive human being. Always ready for a new idea."[24]:37 Nicholson himself said as much, telling an interviewer, "I like listening to everybody. This to me is the elixir of life."[25]

Black later admitted that she had a crush on Nicholson from the time they met, although they only dated briefly. "He was very beautiful. He just looked right at you ... I liked him a lot ... He really sort of wanted to date me but I didn't think of him that way because I was going with Peter Kastner ... Then I went to do Easy Rider, but didn't see him because we didn't have any scenes together ... At the premiere, I saw him out in the lobby afterward and I started crying ... He didn't understand that, but what it was was that I really loved him a lot, and I didn't know it until I saw him again, because it all welled up."[24]:36

Within a month after the film's release that September, the movie became a blockbuster, making Nicholson a leading man and the "new American anti-hero", according to McDougal.[7]:130 Critics began speculating whether he might become another Marlon Brando or James Dean. His career and income skyrocketed. He said, "I was much sought after. Your name becomes a brand image like a product. You become Campbell's soup, with thirty-one different varieties of roles you can play."[7]:130 He told his new agent, Sandy Bresler, to find him unusual roles so he could stretch his acting skill: "I like to play people that haven't existed yet, a 'cusp character'", he said:

I have that creative yearning. Much in the way Chagall flies figures into the air: once it becomes part of the conventional wisdom, it doesn't seem particularly adventurous or weird or wild.[7]:130

There is James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, and Henry Fonda. After that, who is there but Jack Nicholson?

Nicholson starred in Carnal Knowledge in 1971, a comedy-drama directed by Mike Nichols, which co-starred Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, and Candice Bergen. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. As director, Mike Nichols was limited in the actors who he felt could handle the role, saying, "There is James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, and Henry Fonda. After that, who is there but Jack Nicholson?"[26] During the filming, Nicholson struck up what became a lifelong friendship with co-star Garfunkel. When he visited Los Angeles, Garfunkel would stay at Nicholson's home in a room Nicholson jokingly called "the Arthur Garfunkel Suite".[7]:127

Other Nicholson roles included Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973), with Randy Quaid, for which Nicholson won for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was nominated for his third Oscar and a Golden Globe. Television journalist David Gilmour writes that one of his favorite Nicholson scenes from all his films was in this one, when Nicholson slaps his gun on the bar yelling he was the Shore Patrol.[27][28] Critic Roger Ebert called it a very good movie, but credited Nicholson's acting as the main reason: "He creates a character so complete and so complex that we stop thinking about the movie and just watch to see what he'll do next."[29]

In 1974, Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski's noir thriller, Chinatown, and was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Jake Gittes, a private detective. The film co-starred Faye Dunaway and John Huston, and included a cameo role with Polanski. Roger Ebert described Nicholson's portrayal as sharp-edged, menacing, and aggressive, a character who knew "how to go over the top", as he did in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It is that edge that kept Chinatown from becoming a typical genre crime film.[30] Ebert also notes the importance of the role for Nicholson's career, seeing it as a major transition from the exploitation films of the previous decade. "As Jake Gittes, he stepped into Bogart's shoes", says Ebert. "As a man attractive to audiences because he suggests both comfort and danger ... From Gittes forward, Nicholson created the persona of a man who had seen it all and was still capable of being wickedly amused."[31]

Nicholson had been friends with the director Roman Polanski long before the murder of Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson Family, and supported him in the days following the deaths.[7]:109–110[32] After Tate's death, Nicholson began sleeping with a hammer under his pillow,[7] and took breaks from work to attend the Manson trial.[16]

In 1977, three years after Chinatown, Polanski was arrested at Nicholson's home for the sexual assault of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, who was modeling for Polanski during a magazine photo shoot around the pool. At the time of the incident, Nicholson was out of town making a film, but his steady girlfriend, actress Anjelica Huston, had dropped by unannounced to pick up some items. She heard Polanski in the other room say, "We'll be right out."[33] Polanski then came out with Geimer, and he introduced her to Huston, and they chatted about Nicholson's two large dogs, which were sitting nearby. Huston recalled Geimer was wearing platform heels and appeared quite tall.[33] After a few minutes of talking, Polanski had packed up his camera gear, and Huston saw them drive off in his car. Huston told police the next day, after Polanski was arrested, that she "had witnessed nothing untoward" and never saw them together in the other room.[33]

Geimer learned afterwards that Huston herself wasn't supposed to be at Nicholson's house that day, since they had recently broken up, but stopped over to pick up some belongings. Geimer described Nicholson's house as "definitely" a guy's house, with lots of wood and shelves crowded with photos and mementos.[34]

One of Nicholson's greatest successes came in 1975, with his role as Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The movie was an adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, and was directed by Miloš Forman and co-produced by Michael Douglas. Nicholson plays an anti-authoritarian patient at a mental hospital where he becomes an inspiring leader for the other patients. Playing one of the patients was Danny DeVito in an early role. Nicholson learned afterwards that DeVito grew up in the same area of New Jersey, and they knew many of the same people.[35] The film swept the Academy Awards with nine nominations, and won the top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor.

The role seemed perfect for Nicholson, with biographer Ken Burke noting that his "smartass demeanor balances his genuine concern for the treatment of his fellow patients with his independent spirit too free to exist in a repressive social structure".[36][37] Forman allowed Nicholson to improvise throughout the film, including most of the group therapy sequences.[16]:273 Reviewer Marie Brenner notes that his bravura performance "transcends the screen" and continually inspires the other actors by lightening their mental illnesses with his comic dialogue. She describes his performance:

Nicholson is everywhere; his energy propels the ward of loonies and makes of them an ensemble, a chorus of people caught in a bummer with nowhere else to go, but still fighting for some frail sense of themselves. ... There are scenes in Cuckoo's Nest that are as intimate—and in their language, twice as rough—as the best moments in The Godfather ... [and] far above the general run of Hollywood performances.[38]

Also in 1975, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), which co-starred Maria Schneider. Nicholson plays the role of a journalist, David Locke, who during an assignment in North Africa decides to quit being a journalist and simply disappear by taking on a new hidden identity. Unfortunately, the dead person whose identity he takes on turns out to have been a weapons smuggler on the run. Antonioni's unusual plot included convincing dialogue and fine acting, states film critic Seymour Chatman.[39] It was shot in Algeria, Spain, Germany, and England.

The film received good reviews, and revived Antonioni's reputation as one of cinema's great directors.[39] He says he wanted the film to have more of a "spy feeling [and] be more political".[39] Nicholson began shooting the film from an unfinished script, notes Judith Crist,[40] yet upon its completion he thought so highly of the film that he bought the world rights and recorded a reminiscence of working with Antonioni.[39] Critic and screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt provides an overview of Nicholson's role:

The Passenger is an unidealized portrait of a drained man whose one remaining stimulus is to push his luck. Again and again in the movie, we watch him court danger. It interests him to walk the edge of risk. He does it with passivity, as if he were taking part in an expressionless game of double-dare with life. Jack Nicholson's performance is a wonder of insight. How to animate a personality that is barely there.[16]:443

He continued to take more unusual roles. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon, opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's western The Missouri Breaks (1976), specifically to work with Marlon Brando. Nicholson was especially inspired by Brando's acting ability, recalling that in his youth, as an assistant manager at a theater, he watched On the Waterfront about forty times.[41] "I'm part of the first generation that idolized Marlon Brando", he said.[42]

Marlon Brando influenced me strongly. Today, it's hard for people who weren't there to realize the impact that Brando had on an audience. ... He's always been the patron saint of actors.[26]

Nicholson has observed that while both De Niro and Brando were noted for their skill as method actors, he himself has seldom been described as a method actor, a fact which he sees as an accomplishment: "I'm still fooling them", he told Sean Penn during a phone conversation. "I consider it an accomplishment because there's probably no one who understands Method acting better academically than I do—or actually uses it more in his work. But it's funny, nobody really sees that. It's perception versus reality, I guess."[25]

His work is always interesting, clearly conceived, and has the X-factor, magic. Jack is particularly suited for roles which require intelligence. He is an intelligent and literate man, and these are almost impossible to act. In The Shining you believe he's a writer, failed or otherwise.

Although he garnered no Academy Award for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of his more significant roles. He was Kubrick's first choice to play the lead role, although the book's author, Stephen King, wanted the part played by more of an "everyman". However, Kubrick as director won the argument, and described Nicholson's acting quality as being "on a par with the greatest stars of the past, like Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Cagney".[43]

On the set, Nicholson always appeared in character, and if Kubrick felt confident that he knew his lines well enough, he encouraged him to improvise and go beyond the script.[43]:434 For example, Nicholson improvised his now famous "Here's Johnny!" line,[43]:433 along with the scene in which he's sitting at the typewriter and unleashes his anger upon his wife after she discovers he has gone insane when she looks at his writing ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" typed endlessly).[43]:445 There were also extensive takes of scenes, due to Kubrick's perfectionism. Nicholson shot a scene with the ghostly bartender thirty-six times.[44] Nicholson states that "Stanley's demanding. He'll do a scene fifty times, and you have to be good to do that."[45]:38

In 1982, he starred as an immigration enforcement agent in The Border, directed by Tony Richardson. It co-starred Warren Oates, who played a corrupt border official.[46] Richardson wanted Nicholson to play his role less expressively than he had in his earlier roles. "Less is more", he told him, and wanted him to wear reflecting sunglasses to portray what patrolmen wore.[16]:318 Richardson recalled that Nicholson worked hard on the set:

He's what the Thirties and Forties stars were like. He can come on the set and deliver, without any fuss, without taking a long time walking around getting into it. "What do you want? Okay." And he just does it straight off. And then if you want him to do it another way on the next take, he can adapt to that too.[16]:318

Nicholson won his second Oscar, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role of retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment (1983), directed by James L. Brooks. It starred Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. McGilligan claims it was one of Nicholson's most complex and unforgettable characters. He and MacLaine played many of their scenes in different ways, constantly testing and making adjustments. Their scenes together gave the film its "buoyant edge", states McGilligan, and describes Nicholson's acting as "Jack floating like a butterfly".[16]:330

In the 1989 Batman movie, Nicholson played the psychotic murderer and villain The Joker. The film was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned him a percentage of the box office gross estimated at $60 million to $90 million.[51] Nicholson said that he was "particularly proud" of his performance as the Joker: "I considered it a piece of pop art", he said.[25]

For his role as hot-headed Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (1992), a movie about a murder in a U.S. Marine Corps unit, Nicholson received yet another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[52][53] One review describes his performance as "spellbinding", adding that he portrayed "the essence of the quintessential military mind-set".[54] Critic David Thomson notes that Nicholson's character "blazed and roared".[55]

The film's director, Rob Reiner, recalls how Nicholson's level of acting experience affected the other actors during rehearsals: "I had the luck of having Jack Nicholson there. He knows what he's doing, and he comes to play, every time out, full-out performance! And what it says to a lot of the other actors is, 'Oooooh, I better get on my game here because this guy's coming to play! So I can't hold back; I've got to come up to him.' He sets the tone."[56]

In 1996, Nicholson collaborated once more with Batman director Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, pulling double duty as two contrasting characters, President James Dale and Las Vegas property developer Art Land. At first, studio executives at Warner Bros. disliked the idea of killing off Nicholson's character, so Burton created two characters and killed them both off.

Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (1992) and Hoffa (1992). However, Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned him a Golden Globe nomination.[57][58] While David Thomson states that the film was terribly neglected, since Nicholson portrayed one of his best screen characters, someone who is "snarly, dumb, smart, noble, rascally—all the parts of 'Jack'"[55]

Nicholson went on to win his next Academy Award for Best Actor in the romantic comedy, As Good as It Gets (1997), his third film directed by James L. Brooks. He played Melvin Udall, a "wickedly funny",[59] mean-spirited, obsessive-compulsive novelist. "I'm a studio Method actor", he said. "So I was prone to give some kind of clinical presentation of the disorder."[60] His Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress for Helen Hunt, who played a Manhattan wisecracking, single-mother waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner in the restaurant. The film was a tremendous box office success, grossing $314 million, which made it Nicholson's second-best-grossing film of his career, after Batman.[26]

Nicholson admits he initially didn't like playing the role of a middle-aged man alongside much younger Hunt, seeing it as a movie cliché. "But Helen disarmed that at the first meeting", he says, "and I stopped thinking about it." They got along well during the filming, with Hunt saying that he "treated me like a queen", and they connected immediately: "It wasn't even what we said", she adds. "It was just some frequency we both could tune into that was very, very compatible."[59]

Critic Jack Mathews of Newsday described Nicholson as being "in rare form", adding that "it's one of those performances that make you aware how much fun the actor is having".[59] Author and screenwriter Andrew Horton describes their on-screen relationship as being like "fire and ice, oil and water— seemingly complete opposites".[61] Nonetheless, Hunt was Nicholson's perfect counterpart, and delivered "a simply stunning performance", writes critic Louise Keller. Co-star Greg Kinnear's role was also seen as showing his full range of acting in an "exquisitely heartfelt performance".[62]

In 2007, Nicholson co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Rob Reiner's The Bucket List.[64] Nicholson and Freeman portrayed dying men who fulfill their list of goals. In researching the role, Nicholson visited a Los Angeles hospital to see how cancer patients coped with their illnesses.

On February 15, 2015, Nicholson made a special appearance as a presenter on SNL 40, the 40th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live.[67] After the death of boxer Muhammad Ali on June 3, 2016, Nicholson appeared on HBO's The Fight Game with Jim Lampley for an exclusive interview about his friendship with Ali.[68]

In February 2017, it was reported that Nicholson would be starring in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann opposite Kristen Wiig, his first feature film role since How Do You Know.[69] On August 20, 2018, Nicholson dropped out of the project.[70]

Nicholson is the Hollywood celebrity who is most like a character in some ongoing novel of our times. He is also the most beloved of stars—not even his huge wealth, his reckless aging, and the public disasters of his private life can detract from this ... For he is still a touchstone, someone we value for the way he helps us see ourselves.

Nicholson's only marriage was to Sandra Knight from June 17, 1962, to August 8, 1968; they had been separated for two years prior to the divorce. They had one daughter together, Jennifer (born September 16, 1963).

Actress Susan Anspach contended that her son, Caleb Goddard (born September 26, 1970), was fathered by Nicholson. In 1984, Nicholson stated that he was not convinced he is Caleb's father;[71] however, in 1996, Caleb stated that Nicholson had acknowledged him as his son.[72] At some point between 1988 and 1994, Nicholson provided financial assistance to put Caleb through college,[73] and Anspach's New York Times obituary referred to Caleb as "her son, whose father is Jack Nicholson".[74]

Between April 1973 and January 1990, Nicholson had an on-again, off-again relationship with actress Anjelica Huston that included periods of overlap with other women, including Danish model Winnie Hollman, by whom he fathered a daughter, Honey Hollman (born 1981).[75]

From 1989 to 1994, Nicholson had a relationship with actress Rebecca Broussard. They had two children together: daughter Lorraine (born April 16, 1990), and son Raymond (born February 20, 1992).[75][76]

For over a year, from 1999 to 2000, Nicholson dated actress Lara Flynn Boyle; they later reunited, before splitting permanently in 2004.[77]

Nicholson has stated that children "give your life a resonance that it can't have without them ... As a father, I'm there all the time. I give unconditional love."[25] However, he has also lamented that he "didn't see enough of my eldest daughter because I was trying to make a career".[78]

In a criminal lawsuit filed on February 8, 1994, Robert Blank stated that Nicholson, then 56, approached Blank's Mercedes-Benz while he was stopped at a red light in North Hollywood. After accusing the other man of cutting him off in traffic, Nicholson used a golf club to bash the roof and windshield of Blank's car. A witness confirmed Blank's account of the incident, and misdemeanor charges of assault and vandalism were filed against Nicholson. Charges were dropped after Nicholson apologized to Blank, and the two reached an undisclosed settlement, which included a reported $500,000 check from Nicholson.[79]

Nicholson lived next door to Marlon Brando for a number of years on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills. Warren Beatty also lived nearby, earning the road the nickname "Bad Boy Drive". After Brando's death in 2004, Nicholson purchased his bungalow for $6.1 million, with the purpose of having it demolished. Nicholson stated that it was done out of respect to Brando's legacy, as it had become too expensive to renovate the "derelict" building which was plagued by mold.[80]

Nicholson was also a close friend of Robert Evans, the producer of Chinatown, and after Evans lost Woodland, his home, as the result of a 1980s drug bust, Nicholson and other friends of the producer purchased Woodland to give it back to Evans.[83]

Nicholson is a fan of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers. He has been a Laker season ticket holder since 1970, and has held courtside season tickets for the past 25 years next to the opponent's benches both at The Forum and Staples Center, missing very few games. In a few instances, Nicholson has engaged in arguments with game officials and opposing players, and even walked onto the court.[84] He was almost ejected from a Lakers playoff game in May 2003 after he yelled at the game's referee.[85]

Nicholson described himself as a "life-long Irish Democrat".[89] Although he is personally against abortion, he is pro-choice. He has said, "I'm pro-choice, but against abortion because I'm an illegitimate child myself, and it would be hypocritical to take any other position. I'd be dead. I wouldn't exist." He has also said that he has "nothing but total admiration, gratitude, and respect for the strength of the women who made the decision they made in my individual case".[90]

During a 1992 Vanity Fair interview, Nicholson stated, "I don't believe in God now. I can still work up an envy for someone who has a faith. I can see how that could be a deeply soothing experience."[91]

With 12 Academy Award nominations (eight for Best Actor and four for Best Supporting Actor), Nicholson is the most nominated male actor in Academy Awards history. Only Nicholson (1960s–2000s), Michael Caine (1960s–2000s), Meryl Streep (1970s–2010s), Paul Newman (1950s–1960s, 1980s–2000s), and Laurence Olivier (1930s–1970s) have been nominated for an acting (lead or supporting) Academy Award in five different decades.

In 2012, Nicholson co-presented the Academy Award for Best Picture with First Lady Michelle Obama. This ceremony marked the eighth time he has presented the Academy Award for Best Picture (1972, 1977, 1978, 1990, 1993, 2006, 2007, and 2012). Nicholson is an active and voting member of the Academy.

^Smith, Warren Allen. Celebrities in Hell. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade, 2002. Print. "I don't believe in God now", Nicholson told a 1992 Vanity Fair interviewer. But: "I can still work up an envy for someone who has a faith. I can see how that could be a deeply soothing experience."

1.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital

2.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president

3.
Anjelica Huston
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Anjelica Huston is an American actress, director and former fashion model. She also received Academy Award nominations for Enemies, a Love Story, Huston received British Academy Award nominations for her work in the Woody Allen films Crimes and Misdemeanors and Manhattan Murder Mystery. She has frequently collaborated with director Wes Anderson, including The Royal Tenenbaums, hustons paternal grandfather was Canadian-born actor Walter Huston. Huston has Scots-Irish, English and Welsh ancestry from her father and she spent much of her childhood in Ireland, particularly near Craughwell, County Galway, and attended school at Kylemore Abbey. Huston has a brother, Tony, a younger maternal half-sister named Allegra, whom she called Legs, a younger paternal half-brother, actor Danny Huston. She is the aunt of Boardwalk Empire actor Jack Huston and she later lived in England, where she attended Holland Park School. In the late 1960s, she began taking a few roles in her fathers movies. In the same year, her mother, who was 39 years old, died in a car accident, while she modeled, she worked with photographers such as Richard Avedon and Bob Richardson. Deciding to focus more on movies, in the early 1980s she studied acting and her first notable role was in Bob Rafelsons remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Later, her father cast her as Maerose, daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man in the adaptation of Richard Condons Mafia-satire novel Prizzis Honor. Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, making her the first person in Academy Award history to win an Oscar when a parent and she also earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a con artist in Stephen Frears The Grifters. She also starred as the lead in her fathers final directorial film, The Dead and she was then cast as Morticia Addams, in the hugely successful 1991 movie adaptation of The Addams Family. In 1993, she reprised the role for the sequel Addams Family Values and she also starred in the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster, Ever After, A Cinderella Story alongside Drew Barrymore and Melanie Lynskey as the Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent. She starred in two Wes Anderson films, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, as well as appearing in a role in 2007s The Darjeeling Limited. She voiced the role of Queen Clarion in the Disney Fairies film series starring Tinker Bell, on January 22,2010, Huston was honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2011, Huston was in the film Horrid Henry, The Movie, Huston later appeared on the NBC television series, Smash, portraying Broadway producer Eileen Rand. In 2015 and 2016 Huston appeared in the second and third seasons of the Amazon Video series Transparent, Huston has recently expanded her horizons, following in her fathers footsteps in the directors chair. Her first directorial credit was Bastard Out of Carolina, followed by Agnes Browne, for over 20 years, Huston has been developing a film project on Maud Gonne and William Butler Yeats

4.
The Shining (film)
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The film is based on Stephen Kings 1977 novel The Shining. The initial European release of The Shining was 25 minutes shorter than the American version, although contemporary responses from critics were mixed, assessment became more favorable in following decades, and it is now widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made. American director Martin Scorsese ranked it one of the 11 scariest horror movies of all time, critics, scholars, and crew members have discussed the films enormous influence on popular culture. Jack Torrance arrives at the mountain-isolated Overlook Hotel, which is 25 miles from the closest town, once hired, Jack plans to use the hotels solitude to write. The hotel, built on the site of a Native American burial ground, becomes snowed-in during the winter, manager Stuart Ullman warns Jack that a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, developed cabin fever and killed his family and himself. In Boulder, Jacks son, Danny Torrance, has a premonition about the hotel, viewing a cascade of blood emerging from an elevator door. Jacks wife, Wendy, tells a doctor that Danny has a friend named Tony. The family arrives at the hotel on closing day and is given a tour, the chef, Dick Hallorann, surprises Danny by telepathically offering him ice cream. Dick explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared this telepathic ability, Danny asks if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, particularly room 237. Hallorann tells Danny that the hotel has a shine to it along with many memories and he also tells Danny to stay away from room 237. A month passes, while Jacks writing goes nowhere, Danny and Wendy explore the hotels hedge maze, Wendy learns that the phone lines are out due to the heavy snowfall, and Danny has frightening visions. Jack, increasingly frustrated, starts behaving strangely and becomes prone to violent outbursts, Dannys curiosity about room 237 overcomes him when he sees the rooms door open. Later, Wendy finds Jack screaming during a nightmare while asleep at his typewriter, after she awakens him, Jack says he dreamed that he killed her and Danny. Danny arrives and is traumatized with a bruise on his neck. Jack wanders into the hotels Gold Room and meets a bartender named Lloyd. Lloyd serves him bourbon whiskey while Jack complains about his marriage, Wendy later tells Jack that Danny told her a crazy woman in one of the rooms attempted to strangle him. Jack investigates room 237, encountering the ghost of a dead woman, Wendy and Jack argue over whether Danny should be removed from the hotel and a furious Jack returns to the Gold Room, now filled with ghosts attending a ball. He meets the ghost of Grady who tells Jack that he must correct his wife and child, meanwhile, Hallorann grows concerned about whats going on at the hotel and flies back to Colorado

5.
Batman (1989 film)
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Batman is a 1989 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and produced by Jon Peters, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It is the first installment of Warner Bros. initial Batman film series, the film stars Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, alongside Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough and Jack Palance. In the film, Batman is widely believed to be an urban legend until he goes to war with a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker. After Burton was hired as director in 1986, Steve Englehart, Batman was not greenlit until after the success of Burtons Beetlejuice. Numerous A-list actors were considered for the role of Batman before Keaton was cast, Keatons casting caused a controversy since, by 1988, he had become typecast as a comedic actor and many observers doubted he could portray a serious role. Nicholson accepted the role of the Joker under strict conditions dictated a high salary. The tone and themes of the film were influenced in part by Alan Moore and Brian Bollands The Killing Joke, filming took place at Pinewood Studios from October 1988 to January 1989. The budget escalated from $30 million to $48 million, while the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced Hamm to drop out, uncredited rewrites were performed by Warren Skaaren, Charles McKeown and Jonathan Gems. Batman was a critical and financial success, earning over $400 million in box office totals and it was the fifth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release. The film received several Saturn Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination, as Gotham City approaches its bicentennial, Mayor Borg orders district attorney Harvey Dent and police commissioner James Gordon to make the city safer. Meanwhile, reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale begin to investigate rumors of a vigilante nicknamed Batman who is targeting the citys criminals, Batmans alter-ego is Bruce Wayne, a billionaire industrialist who, as a child, witnessed his parents murder at the hands of a psychotic robber. At a fundraiser for the bicentennial in Wayne Manor, Bruce meets and falls for Vale, however, the evening is cut short as Bruce is alerted to Commissioner Gordons sudden departure due to police business and leaves to investigate as Batman. Mob boss Carl Grissom, who has already been targeted by Dent, with the help of corrupt police lieutenant Max Eckhardt, Grissom sets Napier up to be killed in a raid at Axis Chemicals. However, Grissoms plan is foiled with the arrival of Commissioner Gordon, in the ensuing shootout, Napier kills Eckhardt, but Batman suddenly appears and, in a struggle, Napier is knocked into a vat of chemicals. Batman escapes and Napier is presumed dead, as Batman returns to his life as Bruce Wayne, Napier is revealed to have survived the accident, but left horribly disfigured with chalk white skin, emerald green hair, and a ruby red grin. Driven insane, Napier calls himself the Joker, killing Grissom, the Joker begins to terrorize Gotham City by lacing hygiene products with Smilex, a deadly chemical which causes victims to die laughing with the same maniacal grin as the Joker. Whilst searching for information on Batman, the Joker also falls for Vale and he lures her to the Gotham Museum of Art, but Batman arrives and rescues her. They escape in the Batmobile, but are pursued by the Jokers men, Batman takes Vicki to the Batcave, where he gives her information from his research on Smilex that will allow the citys residents to protect themselves from the toxin

6.
Joker (character)
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The Joker is a fictional supervillain created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson who first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book Batman published by DC Comics. Credit for the Jokers creation is disputed, Kane and Robinson claimed responsibility for the Jokers design, although the Joker was planned to be killed off during his initial appearance, he was spared by editorial intervention, allowing the character to endure as the archenemy of the superhero Batman. In his comic appearances, the Joker is portrayed as a criminal mastermind. The Joker has had various possible origin stories during his decades of appearances, the most common story involves him falling into a tank of chemical waste which bleaches his skin white, turns his hair green, and his lips bright red, the resulting disfigurement drives him insane. The antithesis of Batman in personality and appearance, the Joker is considered by critics to be his perfect adversary, the 1990s introduced a romantic interest for the Joker in his former psychiatrist, Harley Quinn, who becomes his villainous sidekick. Although his primary obsession is Batman, the Joker has also fought other heroes including Superman, one of the most iconic characters in popular culture, the Joker has been listed among the greatest comic book villains and fictional characters ever created. The characters popularity has seen him appear on a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectable items, inspire real-world structures, Mark Hamill, Troy Baker, and others have provided the characters voice. Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson are credited with creating the Joker, Robinson claimed that it was his 1940 card sketch that served as the characters concept, and which Finger associated with Veidts portrayal. Kane hired the 17-year-old Robinson as an assistant in 1939, after he saw Robinson in a white jacket decorated with his own illustrations, beginning as a letterer and background inker, Robinson quickly became primary artist for the newly created Batman comic book series. In a 1975 interview in The Amazing World of DC Comics, Robinson said he wanted a supreme arch-villain who could test Batman and he wanted an exotic, enduring character as an ongoing source of conflict for Batman, designing a diabolically sinister-but-clownish villain. Robinson was intrigued by villains, his studies at Columbia University taught him that some characters are made up of contradictions, leading to the Jokers sense of humor. He said that the name came first, followed by an image of a card from a deck he often had at hand. I wanted somebody that would make an impression, would be bizarre. He told Finger about his concept by telephone, later providing sketches of the character, Finger thought the concept was incomplete, providing the image of Veidt with a ghastly, permanent rictus grin. In a 1994 interview with journalist Frank Lovece, Kane stated his position, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of the Joker. Thats the way I sum it up, looks like Conrad Veidt – you know, the actor in The Man Who Laughs, by Victor Hugo. Bill Finger had a book with a photograph of Conrad Veidt and showed it to me and said, Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it, but hell always say he created it till he dies. He brought in a card, which we used for a couple of issues for him to use as his playing card

7.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze

8.
Academy Award for Best Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, since its inception, the award has been given to 79 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars, spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933

9.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees

10.
Michael Caine
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Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor and author. Renowned for his working class cockney accent, Caine has appeared in over 115 films and is regarded as a British film icon. His most notable roles in the 1970s included Get Carter, The Last Valley, Sleuth, for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination, The Man Who Would Be King, and A Bridge Too Far. He achieved some of his greatest critical success in the 1980s, with Educating Rita earning him the BAFTA, in 1986, he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Woody Allens Hannah and Her Sisters. Caine played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, Caine played Nigel Powers in the 2002 parody Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Trilogy. He appeared in other of Nolans films including The Prestige, Inception. He also appeared as a character in Alfonso Cuaróns Children of Men. As of February 2017, films in which he has starred have grossed over $3.5 billion domestically, Caine is ranked the eleventh highest grossing box office star. Caine is one of two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s. In 2000, Caine was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema. Caine was born in St Olaves Hospital in Rotherhithe, London, the son of Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a market porter, and Ellen Frances Marie Burchell. His father had English, Irish, and, reportedly, Irish Traveller ancestry and he was brought up in his mothers Protestant religion. Caine had a maternal half-brother, David William Burchell and a full brother, Caine grew up in Southwark, London, and during the Second World War, he was evacuated to North Runcton near Kings Lynn in Norfolk. In 1944, he passed his eleven plus exam, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs School, after a year there he moved to Wilsons Grammar School in Camberwell, which he left at sixteen after gaining a School Certificate in six subjects. He then worked briefly as a clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria Street. He had gone into Korea feeling sympathetic to communism, coming as he did from a poor family, Caine would like to see the return of national service to help combat youth violence, stating, Im just saying, put them in the Army for six months. Youre there to learn how to defend your country, then when you come out, you have a sense of belonging rather than a sense of violence. Adopting the stage name Michael Scott, in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the Companys production of Wuthering Heights and he moved to the Lowestoft Repertory Company in Suffolk for a year when he was 21

11.
Kennedy Center Honors
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The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture. The Honors have been presented annually since 1978, culminating each December in a gala celebrating the Honorees in the Kennedy Center Opera House. George Stevens, Jr. created the Kennedy Center Honours with the late Nick Vanoff and he was the producer and co-writer through the 2014 awards, after which he sold the production rights to the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center Honors started in 1977, after that years 10th-anniversary White House reception, Roger L. Stevens, the founding chairman of the Kennedy Center, asked George Stevens, Jr. the founding director of the AFI, to hold an event for the Center. George Stevens asked Isaac Stern to become involved, and then pitched the idea to the television network CBS, with the announcement of the first honors event and honorees, CBS vice president for specials Bernie Sofronski stated, George came to us with this. What turned us on is that this is the show of its kind. In Europe and most countries, they have ways of honoring their actors, england has its command performances for the queen. We see this as a national honoring of people who have contributed to society, were going to make an effort in terms of a real special. The first host was Leonard Bernstein in 1978, followed by Eric Sevareid in 1979, walter Cronkite hosted from 1981 to 2002 and Caroline Kennedy hosted from 2003 until 2012. Glenn Close was host in 2013 and Stephen Colbert has hosted since 2014, ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of White Cherry Entertainment were selected as Executive Producers of the 38th annual Kennedy Center Honors after George Stevens, Jr. stepped down. This is one of the few shows that does not air live. The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees selects the Honoree recipients based on excellence in music, dance, theater, opera, the invitation-only weekend-long ceremony includes the Chairmans Luncheon, State Department dinner, White House reception and the Honors gala performances and supper. Surrounded by the Honorees, the luncheon is held on Saturday at the Kennedy Center, on Sunday, there is an early-evening White House reception hosted by the President of the United States and the First Lady, followed by the Honors gala performance at the Kennedy Center and supper. For the 2015 gala performance, President Barack Obama did attend, bush did not attend in December 1989 and President Bill Clinton did not attend in 1994. There have been 200 recipients to date of the Kennedy Center Honors Awards during the Honors 39 years, the vast majority have been bestowed on individuals. Nathan Milstein, and Alwin Nikolais 1988 — Alvin Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider, actress Katharine Hepburn declined the committees first offer, though she relented in 1990. Doris Day repeatedly turned down the honors because her fear of flying prevented her from attending the ceremony, when considering Irving Berlin for the 1987 awards because of criticism for overlooking him, the Center was informed that Berlin wanted to be honored only if he surpassed his 100th birthday. Also, he was in failing health, being confined to a following a series of strokes

12.
AFI Life Achievement Award
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The Trustees also specified that the work of the recipient must have withstood the test of time. Director John Ford was the choice of the Board of Trustees for the first award as he clearly stands preeminent in the history of motion pictures. President Richard M. Nixon attended the dinner at which Ford was presented the award on March 31,1973. Silent film star Lillian Gish was the oldest recipient of the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, all Life Achievement Award ceremonies have been televised on major TV networks and cable channels, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, USA, TV Land, TNT and TBS. Agreeing to appear at the televised ceremony apparently is part of the AFIs criteria for selecting the award, the televised ceremony generates income for the AFI, which is no longer funded by the US government. Of the first 45 honorees, nine have been women, Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton. One living actress who was listed on AFIs 100 Years.100 Stars has not received the award, the American Film Institute has awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award to one person each year since 1973. The 44th Award was presented to John Williams on June 9,2016, Williams is the first composer to receive the honor. The event was broadcast on June 15,2016 on TNT and it was also broadcast on September 12,2016 on TCM as a lineup dedicated to John Williams, and an encore presentation followed after. The AFI Life Achievement Award official website

Saint Mary Lake with its Wild Goose Island is seen during the opening scene of The Shining.

The set design for the interior scenes of the Overlook Hotel was modeled in large parts on the Ahwahnee Hotel (It was renamed Majestic Yosemite Hotel on March 1, 2016.) The Ahwahnee's lobby was the model for the set of the lobby created at Elstree Studios.

A Galludet Tractor biplane which the New York National Guard aviators rented in 1915.

Captain Charles A. Lindbergh, Missouri National Guard, and members of his National Guard unit, 110th Observation Squadron, after he flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, 1927.

Following a devastating blizzard in 1949, Colorado ANG C-47s dropped hay to stranded and starving livestock throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Altogether the Colorado Air Guardsmen flew 17 such missions dropping tons of hay that saved thousands of cattle and wildlife. Colorado ANG F-51s and A-26s also flew 10 reconnaissance missions during that emergency, 29 January 1949.